#kerajaangagal151: Minister for Women, Family and Community Development should give a special report to Parliament in July on what the government had done to help the “White Flag” victims and the rise of suicides because of Covid-19 pandemic

We have finally come to July, 2021, the last month before the end of emergency on August 1, 2021 but there is no news that the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is accepting the decree of the Yang di Pertuan Agong to convene Parliament before August 1, 2021.

The weekly Wednesday Cabinet meeting yesterday was postponed because the Prime Minister was hospitalised for diarrhoea.

We wish the Prime Minister all’s well for being hospitalised for diarrhoea but this should not disable him from agreeing to convene Parliament before August 1.

If the decision is left to the next Cabinet meeting on 7th July, it will be impossible to comply with the Dewan Rakyat Standing Order requirement of the 28 days’ notice for convening Parliament, although there are provisions under Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders 9(2)(a) and 11(2) to dispense with the 28-day notice requirement.

The Dewan Rakyat Speaker, Azhar Azizan Harun and the Senate President, Rais Yatim, have confirmed in their joint statement yesterday that the Yang di Pertuan had told them on Tuesday that Parliament should convene before August 1 to debate the Emergency Proclamation and Ordinance, as well as the National Recovery Plan.

The Parliament meeting that is convened should be a regular parliamentary meeting, with the Official Opening by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on the first day, followed by a debate on the Royal Address, together with other parliamentary matters including the debates on the Emergency Proclamation and Ordinance and the National Recovery Plan – and not a special meeting of Parliament in July and a regular meeting of Parliament at the end of August as suggested by Rais.

Malaysia has been presented with a constitutional conundrum, how to square two important constitutional issues – whether an emergency ordinance is justiciable in the courts and how to repair a violation of the constitutional principle that Parliament cannot be suspended in an emergency.

With the convening of Parliament before August 1, the country can at least move ahead on the constitutional basis of Malaysia being founded on a constitutional monarchy based on parliamentary democracy.

At the July meeting of Parliament, the government should give a full report on its war against the Covid-19 pandemic in the past 18 months and why Malaysia has suddenly catapulted to be one of the world’s worst performing nations in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Minister for Women, Family and Community Development should also give a full report on what her Ministry had done to help the “White Flag” victims and the rise or suicide particularly this year - the direct results of the government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.